MCM Comic Con London – October 2017 Round-Up. Cosplay Photos, Video Interviews & Everything Else!
It was a surprisingly sunny (if a little cold!) weekend as tv and film stars, along with thousands of fans and cosplayers, headed to London’s ExCeL for the return of MCM Comic Con to the country’s capital.
For those of you who haven’t experienced MCM Comic Con London before, the giant geek gathering has grown an extraordinary amount in recent years. Split over the two sides of London’s ExCeL Exhibition Centre, it’s filled with everything a geek could wish for, from the mainstream to the rather obscure!
This year MCM partnered up with Marvel, giving a massive space to the Disney-owned brand on one side of the ExCeL, full of costumes from the movies, video games, toys, comics and other merchandise. Not wishing to be outdone, DC had also taken a sizable space in the opposing hall, also with games, toys, comics, and the ‘Batman v Superman’ batmobile!
One of the things I love about the MCM Comic Cons, which are spread throughout the year across the UK, is how friendly people are. You’ll never meet a nicer bunch of folk, from the volunteers to the security, the paid staff, guests and cosplayers. It’s always a fantastic, friendly atmosphere.
With the recent announcement that MCM has joined with ReedPOP, the world’s largest producer of pop culture events, and people behind New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, and PAX, I expect next year’s events will be even bigger!
You can see a little round-up video of what we got up to (with the help of Bex Trista from TristaBytes) below!
The Guests
Up until now, special guests for the MCM October London Comic Con have tended to not be quite as big as the event in May, due to many of the US tv actors being in the middle of filming schedules, but this year they outdid themselves. Thanks to the team up with Marvel, we had ‘Peggy Carter’ star, Hayley Atwell, ‘The Avengers’ Falcon, aka Anthony Mackie, and Stefan Kapicic, aka Colossus from ‘Deadpool’. ‘Sherlock’ star Andrew Scott was also in attendance, as was ‘Star Wars’ star Warwick Davis and Johnny Yong Bosch from ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’.
As with all these events, not all the special guests have time to come and chat with us press people, but we did manage to get a number of interviews for you!
First, we have not one but TWO interviews with the lovely Manu Bennett. In the first interview, he talks mainly ‘Arrow’ and playing Deathstroke – warning – mild Arrow Season 6 spoiler at the end!
His second interview he’s mainly covering ‘The Shannara Chronicles’, talking about his role as Allanon, and the hilarious origins of some of the druid’s magical incantations… (warning – there is some bad language in this one!)
We have a ‘Doctor Who’ interview with David Bradley & Claudia Grant where they talk about the upcoming Christmas Special which sees Peter Capaldi bow out of the role. They discuss the new Big Finish audio drama ‘The First Doctor Adventures‘, which sees them reprise their roles as The First Doctor and Susan, and they chat about Mark Gatiss’ brilliant ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ which started them in the Who universe!
We have a hysterical video with the boys (and girl!) from ‘Red Dwarf’ – Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, and Hattie Hayridge. You can watch our very own Bex Trista from TristaBytes utterly derail the interview, and distract Danny, by asking a question about musical episodes. :D
We also sent Bex along to ask some questions of the brilliant Stefan Kapicic, aka Colossus from ‘Deadpool’, who talked about working with Ryan Reynolds, and the process of creating his character.
And finally, we have an interview with the star of ‘Dark Matter’, the very lovely Anthony Lemke, who speaks for the first time about his thoughts on the cancellation of the show, and what he’s up to next!
The Comics
TPub – Theatrics
As no Comic Con would be complete without the comics, there was a huge range of indie comic book writers and artists displaying their latest creations. As usual, we stopped by our friends at Subversive Comics, creators of the excellent Bearlands, and Metal Made Flesh, and their brilliant new book, Super Robot MAYHEM.
I also stopped by the folks at TPub and picked up a copy of ‘Theatrics‘, their latest graphic novel, which tells the story of Rudy, the king of Broadway, who is living the American Dream in 1920s New York… That is until he’s robbed, beaten and left for dead. Horribly disfigured, penniless and broken he finds himself pursuing a new career of blood, sweat and tears. A full review of that coming soon!
Bex also did a round-up video of Comic Village talking to lots of the guys and showing off their awesome comic book work.
The Cosplay
Every time I come to a Comic Con, I’m completely blown away by the incredible cosplayers, both amateur and pro, who come to these events. As ever, there were lots of Jokers and Harleys, although a lot more variation in them than I’d seen before. Some classic Batman Animated Series version, some based on the movie versions, and some mash-ups and original concepts! A lot of ‘Rick & Morty’ cosplayers this year, including the epic Pickle Rick you can see below! I also particularly liked the brilliant ‘Breaking Bad’ cosplay by Adventures With The Bandit too. Hands down, my favourite this Con though was ‘Optimus Amazon Prime’. Not the most sophisticated outfit, but who can resist an ingenious pun like that!
You can see all of our cosplay photos from MCM Comic Con London – October 2017 below. If you are in any of the photos, thank you for posing, and if you want the super high res version of the picture, just message me via the contact page, and I’ll email it over.
